St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1887-12-22
CURRENT AFFAIRS.
MIR. MORRILL, ON IMMIGRATION.
Statement OF His Views I'm support OF
His Bill for Inspection Abroad.


His Bill for Inspection Abroad.
Wednesday the senate took up the
bill introduced by Mr.. Morrill,, to reg
ulate immigration, and was addressed
by the senator in explanation and adj
vocacy of the bill.
Its main object, he said, was to have
the character of foreign immigrants
examined frst by United States con-
suls at the ports of departure, instead
of BY state commissioners at the ports
of arrival. The foreign idea, he said,
was that the United States invited free
immigration, regardless of the charac-
ter of the immigrants but the Ameri-
can idea was that it really offered an
asylum to cOnvicts, to irrecOncilable
enemies of law and order, or to the Oc
cupants of the old worlds insane asy
lums and warehouses;. The doors
were left open only to persons of good
moral character. The fact that nearly
5000, 900 immigrants had come to this
country within the last 10 years proved
that the question was one of great i'm
pOrtance. The great American princi-
pie of free admission of immigrants
was not proposed to be abandoned /;
but that principle had always been on
be OF good moral character, and should
be able to support themselves. He re-
ferred to the fact that recently the
mayor of the Athens of America had
been present at a reception given in
honor of the champion slugger of the
prize ring, and that, if not the will, at
least the political necessities of the
mayor had consented to that. He said
Al. kl,n a ut
Boston was composed of persons of
foreign birth and foreign parentage /;
80 per cent. of the population of New
York, 81 per cent of the population OF
Chicago, and these figures might be
aggravated by future immigration. BY
the census of 1880 the population of
foreign birth and parentage was about
I5,00O,0 900 and the immigration since
then 4 ,434 900; SO that, without in
Guiding the children born OF foreign
parents since 1880, there was now IN
this country foreign population OF
I9,340,0 900, or nearly One-thlrd OF the
entire population. This disclosed the
enormous attractive force exeIted Oy
this country on the inhabitants OF Eu-
rope. He had lately visited Castle
Garden, in the port of New York,
where u VESSEL .Ju5G iiOih
Antwerp with 600 immigrants and the
sight he had witnessed suggested the
doubt whether this country possessed
the transcendent power to transform
all those immigrants into good and
valuable American citizens. He quot
ed the reply of Mr.. BalfOur to ques-
ton in the house of commons as to the
government aiding emigration, to the
effect that the government would APP
ply no more money to that purpose
during the remainder of the year. This
he said, was a negative statement. Mr..
BalfOur had not said that parishes or
neighbors should not aid emigration.
At the end of the year emigration might
be aided by the British government
again, unless the fishery commission
ers should implOre Mr.. BalfOur to re-
frain from putting briars in their path
while cunning diplomacy was going on
here. The paupers of Great Britain
numbered very nearly il round million,
outside of the uncounted Migrants and
casual paupers, who far exceeded the
number of so-called paupers. There
was too strong tendency in Europe
to regard the United States as Il cess
pool for the violent products of the old
world. Young America should not be
deprived of it's birthright. The meas
ure introduced by him was intended to
regulate immigration 10y scheme so
moderate as to receive general APP
proval.